Eagles-Giants 1-11-09
By Joseph Santoliquito
NEW YORK—The stunned looks surrounded the Eagles causeway, as they clanked their way through the tunnel of Giants Stadium Sunday and headed to their happy, closterphobic locker room. There were looks of disbelief by the media. By people needing to still be convinced this is all still really happening. That this wild, helter-skelter team really did what the scoreboard said they did.
It is. They did.
The Eagles are going to the NFC championship for the fifth time in the last 10 years, riding the kind of magic that makes teams and runs like this seemingly remembered for years.
The roots of that happened here at Giants Stadium. The Giants punched. The Eagles punched back. The Giants threw an uppercut, the Eagles countered with a right cross. The Giants attempted a hook, the Eagles delivered a knockout blow.
It was a heavyweight tilt in the cold. Angry puffs of white smoke trailing each player after every play. It featured head clashes, forearms, and more than a few straight arms to the face.
In the end, it was Eagles holding up a 23-11 victory to finish the defending Super Bowl champions at Giants Stadium. The team that the Eagles wanted to be, the team that showed glimpses of what they could be finally arrived Sunday.
“That’s us, that’s what we are, fighters,” said Eagles’ defensive tackle Mike Patterson, who along with Brodrick Bunkley, stopped the Giants twice on crucial fourth-and-short plays that sealed the victory for the Eagles. “We’ve had people doubt us all year, and I think it is something you like, because everyone in here believed in what we could do. We all kept fighting. We all kept believing in what we could do. Now everyone sees what we can do.”
Now is the next step and that’s a trip to Arizona to meet the Cardinals in the NFC championship, 3 p.m. next Sunday. It will be the fifth time the Eagles have reached the NFC championship in 10 years under coach Andy Reid (go ahead, Reid detractors, ask for his head on a platter now)—and it couldn’t have come from a more demanding, nor more fulfilling victory.
The Eagles simply did something the Giants could not do, and that’s finish. The Eagles scored both of the game’s two touchdowns, one caused by an Giants’ turnover, and other by the hot passing of Donovan McNabb. The Giants, however, couldn’t generate anything in the red zone, a familiar mantra heard throughout this year about the Eagles.
It was an interesting juxtaposition. Eli Manning was the one who looked skittish, indecisive, overthrowing and under throwing his receivers. It was the Giants who were blowing timeouts, and were inept in the red zone. It was the Giants—and their fans—who will have last year to savor, while the Eagles will advance, with a chance to reach the Super Bowl for the second time in Reid’s tenure. It was the Giants who were stopped on two fourth-and-short situations (thanks to Bunkley and Patterson, who have played great all season).
Defense won this game. Bunkley and Patterson created problems all afternoon for the Giants’ interior offensive. Linebackers Stewart Bradley, Chris Gocong and Akeem Jordan flew all over the field, stacking the line of scrimmage, and preventing the Giants’ ground game from building any momentum. Juqua Parker and Trent Cole shut down the edges, with help from Brian Dawkins and Quintin Mikell.
Asante Samuel showed why the Eagles spilled out all that money—a big-time player, who has made more than a few big-time plays these last three weeks.
Defense is what gets teams deep into the postseason—and the way this defense is playing, keeping Manning and the Giants out of the end zone, it’s possible more things are in store.
“That’s where it starts, the defense,” Reid said. “I know you win game son defense in the NFL, and we have the best defensive coordinator in the NFL (in Jimmy Johnson). Right now, you have to enjoy it and keep things in perspective.”
Manning was a mess Sunday. While the Giants were waiting and waiting for something to happen, nothing ever did. The Giants were a team skidding and screeching as the season was winding down, ending the year losers in four of their last five games.
Manning was 15-for-29, for 169 yards and two interceptions. That comes off his one of his worst performances this season when the Eagles held Manning to 13 of 27 passing, for 123 yards and one meaningless late score in the Eagles’ 20-14 victory on December 7.
The Eagles aren’t this year’s Giants, they’re this year’s Eagles—a hot team that’s won six of its last seven. A team that also handled—very easily—a Cardinals team that seemed like it had no interest in playing back on Thanksgiving Day night, in a 48-20 Eagles’ victory.
That’s what is next.
The Cardinals can be explosive. The Eagles’ defense can be down right scary.
“We’ve been playing well the last six, seven games,” Eagles’ defensive coordinator Jimmy Johnson said. “I’m very proud of these guys. They never quit. The biggest thing we wanted to focus on was no long runs from the Giants and keep them out of the end zone. We added a couple of blitzes here and there, but we’re two teams that really know each other. That’s a very good offense over there.”
David Akers established a new NFL record with 18-straight postseason field goals and exorcising his personal demons of Giants Stadium.
There were five lead changed—the last a 13-11 Eagles’ lead.
Kevin Curtis had to erase a smudge of his own, when he dropped what looked like a clear touchdown early in the third quarter. From then now, Curtis played like a man possessed, making a difficult catch on a slant between two Giants’ defenders on the same series—resulting in an Akers’ 35-yard field goal.
“I can’t believe I dropped it,” Curtis said. “Oh man, I was doing more than kicking myself after that. That would be a little bit of an understatement. But winning takes all that away. I wanted to be able to come back for these guys. I didn’t want to let them down.”
It seems no one wants to let anyone down.
“No one does,” Patterson said. “I know we starting to get some credit for what we do up front. But that’s not important to us. What’s important is what are teammates think and getting us to the big show.”
Don’t look now, but the Eagles are one game away.
